In the closing days of the election, we need more news coverage of the ominous consequences of a possible Trump win.
In the closing days of the election, we need more news coverage of the ominous consequences of a possible Trump win.
Luckily, there are some journalists doing this important work. More need to follow suit and fast.
Throughout this consequential political season, I’ve pointed out far too many examples of “sane-washing,” lack of real-time fact-checking, false equivalencies, vague and misleading headlines and stenography journalism. So widespread are these practices that it is not hard to argue that journalism has largely failed us in our moment of gravest need. For someone like me, that is heartbreaking.
There is, however, a silver lining, because despite those many failures, there are still quite a few journalists that have continued to do solid, important work. Even now, critical stories are being told — stories that focus on the actual stakes in this election. Reporters rose to meet the moment when they wrote about the women who have died because of Trump’s abortion bans, when they analyzed the real-life costs of his tariff tax plan and when they showed us how entire families would be rounded up in his massive deportation effort.
Here are two recent efforts I think are worth highlighting:
PROPUBLICA: How Abortion Bans Lead to Preventable Death
“A Pregnant Teenager Died After Trying to Get Care in Three Visits to Texas Emergency Rooms”
ProPublica’s “Life of the Mother” series is focused on the deadly consequences of the extreme abortion bans in so many states across the country. Just this week alone, the non-profit has reported on multiple women and one teen in Texas that died when doctors refused them lifesaving medical care because they feared the legal repercussions.
“It’s clear by now that state abortion bans are having a seismic impact on health care. They are, as intended, preventing doctors from terminating pregnancies. But they are also introducing a doctor who told us they’ve seen their colleagues hesitate to treat deadly conditions like preeclampsia and cancer, worried their attempts to protect their pregnant patients could be interpreted as a crime against the fetus, punishable by prison time.”
These are Donald Trump’s abortion bans and if he wins, we face even more extreme attacks on women and reproductive health care. Just look at the GOP 2024 platform — which calls for “establishing fetal personhood through the Constitution’s 14th Amendment” — and Project 2025’s far-reaching anti-abortion plans, including enforcing the antiquated Comstock Act as a backdoor national abortion ban. In the closing days of this campaign, the press coverage should model this “stakes” reporting by ProPublica so voters have every opportunity to understand what else could happen to women’s healthcare if he wins.
60 MINUTES: Mass deportations: The costs and the consequences
“Trump’s mass deportation plan for undocumented immigrants could cost billions a year”
“Migrant families worry over possible family separations if Trump wins”
For months, Trump has used Nazi-style language to describe immigrants and promised a full-scale military operation to round up and deport millions. This week, CBS News reporter Cecilia Vega had a very revealing look at the real-life impacts of those threats, and it was jaw dropping in its scale and inhumanity. She interviewed former Border Chief Tom Homan who knows a lot about despicable policies since he’s the one who helped draft and then implemented the unspeakable family separation policy during Trump.
“When asked whether there was a way to carry out mass deportations without separating families, Tom Homan, who led immigration enforcement during the first year-and-a-half of the Trump administration, said, “Of course there is. Families can be deported together.”
Vega’s story noted that “more than four million U.S.-born children live with an undocumented parent,” so just let that sink in for a minute.
“Asked why children should have to leave the country where they were born and raised, Homan said, “Because their parents absolutely entered the country illegally, had a child knowing he was in the country illegally. So he created that crisis.”
This kind of reporting brings the oft-repeated campaign rhetoric to life for voters. It forces us to sit with these very real — that Donald Trump will use the U.S. military and other law enforcement agencies to round-up entire families and put them in camps before deporting each one — U.S. citizen or not.
MORE COVERAGE OF THE STAKES, NOT THE ODDS
I think it’s important to credit some other news outlets doing remarkable work covering the stakes in this critical election. I welcome other examples.
The Guardian U.S.: The Guardian has an entire section devoted to the consequences of a Trump win. It’s an impressive array of detailed stories on topics ranging from the Ukraine-Russia war, likely trouble for NATO, eroding progress on gun safety, clamping down on the news media, handing over public lands to big oil, killing clean energy progress, rolling back LQBTQ rights and more. This truly is must-read coverage.
Mother Jones: With word that Trump plans to give anti-vaxx extremist RFK Jr. a key health care role, it’s critical to understand the implications including the vaccines that might be in jeopardy. This Mother Jones piece by reporter Julia Metraux lays it out in frightening detail: “Which Vaccines Will RFK Jr. Come For?”
Vox: Vaccines aren’t the only things on the chopping block if Trump wins. As Vox reports, our entire healthcare system could change dramatically including severe changes to the very popular and widely used Affordable Care Act. “Make no mistake: Republican leaders still want to slash health care spending and unwind health insurance regulations” writes reporter Dylan Scott. It doesn’t matter to Trump that 21 million people now rely on the ACA. He’s been trying to gut Barack Obama’s signature legislation since 2015. If he wins, expect him to try to eliminate the pre-existing conditions rules, if not kill the ACA completely.
There are just four days left of this maddening election cycle. I encourage all of you to seek out coverage about the stakes. Even though so many of our mainstream media outlets are obsessed with the odds, that’s not really the story, is it? It’s the stakes and they are ominous. It’s up to all of us to truly understand that as we cast our votes.
Jennifer Schulze is a Chicago journalist talking about journalism. You can read her columns here and at Heartland Signal. Follow Jennifer on Threads @newsjennifer_schulze, BlueSky @newsjennifer.bsky.social or Twitter/X @NewsJennifer.